Retd employee of Bangalore Development Authority, broker held in site forgery case

Bengaluru: A retired Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) employee is among three people arrested for conspiring to fraudulently register a plot using fake documents and an impersonator.

The fraud surfaced when Lakshmi Devamma approached the BDA to transfer rights of a plot after the death of her husband, L Bylappa, on September 19, 2019.

Bylappa had originally been allotted a 40x60 site (No 2129) in Arkavathi Layout in 2006, which was later exchanged for a new site (No 1089) in Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout (NPKL Layout) in 2018.

On reviewing Devamma’s application, BDA officials found that the NK Layout site had already been registered.

An inquiry revealed that a BDA employee, a real-estate broker, an impersonator N Bylappa posing as L Bylappa, his son, and a false witness named Devendra had created fake documents.

Using the impersonator, the group carried out a site cancellation and obtained a clean sale deed for the NK Layout property in 2018, cheating the rightful heir, Devamma.

Following a complaint by AP Kumar, Inspector of Police (Vigilance), BDA, the arrests were made.

The police arrested Chikkarai K, 68, the retired BDA assistant; broker Muralidhar, 60; and Manjunath B, 48, the son of N Bylappa, on September 23.

The Seshadripuram police registered a case under BNS sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document as genuine), and 120B (criminal conspiracy).

The police have cautioned the public to remain vigilant against similar attempts to grab BDA sites using forged documents.